To clarify, I (the OP) is talking about “ethnic” cuisine.
Ranch!
USA! USA! USA!
American fast food sucks, but some american foods can be sublime -
Shrimp and Grits - Gullah peasant food, but absolutely fantastic. Warm, creamy, full of flavor, a filling breakfast.
American Pit BBQ - it changes with the ethnicity of the location, because of historic food preferences. Doesn’t matter if it is beef, pork, chicken, sausage or ribs. What does matter is the way it is cooked, and how it is served. My personal preference is for st louis ribs while mrAru is from California and prefers cow based BBQ, which is more mexican/south american churrasco than proper slow cooked BBQ.
Seafood boil - crab based, lobster based, crawfish based, clam based all good. Cover a table outside under a tree in the summer with newspaper, put out a few rolls of paper towel, have a garbage barrel to hand - pour a huge heap of seafood and sides like corn on the cob, new potatoes onto the table, settle in with your choice of a cold drink and dig in. I did crab boils in Virginia, and I do lobster boils here in CT, and when I lived in NoLa, I did crawfish =) add some deep fried hush puppies and it’s all good.
If you notice, all these are peasant foods, cheap [originally] and very comfort food-y. Churrasco and barbeque and seafood boil/bakes [there is a variant where a pit is dug, and stuff layered in with hot rocks, or even buried in stuff and set on fire. Fascinating food history =)] are very new world. When the settlers arrived in the new world, they generally did not have access to all the conveniences they were used to from home, and used local cooking techniques and ingredients. Indian pudding is very uniquely american new england cooking and the same goes with Boston Baked Beans, which tend to be sweeter than other baked beans as they have a heavy dollop of molassas added.
I’m not sure that I could say what is ethnic UK food anymore. As I’ve said, there are regional specialities, but you’d be pushed to make a whole meal out of them in any one place.
We don’t.
Why do you think that we put vinegar on everything? Vinegar gos only on chips in my world. I don’t see any of my firends throwing vinegar on everything either.
The only candidates for this dubious honor are cuisines who don’t have fatty pork/bacon, IMO.
aruvqan mentioned some, but to further the point about real American cuisine and the many great and distinctive foods originating here,
Blackberry cobbler
Buttermilk biscuits
Chicken and dumplings
Chocolate chip cookies
Clam chowder
Cornbread
Crab cakes
Cranberry relish
Fried chicken
Gumbo
Hush puppies
Jambalaya
Pecan pie
Pumpkin pie
Succotash
Thanksgiving turkey
Three bean salad
Zucchini bread
Notice that virtually all of these involve native American ingredients, and particular intersections of cultural influences that only/first happened here.
So let me get this straight – you’ve nominated a cuisine you know little to nothing about, and then invented a characteristic in order to justify your choice?
I hope you don’t mind me saying that I find that an odd way of going about things.
And Dandelion and Burdock knocks Coca Cola into a cocked hat, kicks it into touch, and stamps on it.
So there.
No-one’s disputing the general utility of vinegar in cookery. The claim was that the British put vinegar on everything, which isn’t even a gross exaggeration. It’s just pointlessly untrue.
I beg to differ.
While fast food is pretty horrible, America absolutely cannot be on this list because Cajun cooking and southern cooking alone stand out so far ahead of the pack.
I beg to agree.
mmm
I think it’s worth pointing out that the British do not put vinegar on everything.
“Now now boys, fightin’s outta style - fun’s where the fair’s at.”
Let me come to the defence of our buddies across the pond, food-wise. A few years ago, I had to go to Ireland on business. I thought to myself “Oh great, ten days of food that’s been boiled to death.” Boy was I pleasently surprised! The food was outstanding. Except that they were in the middle of a mad cow scare, so all the beef was (to my taste) overcooked.
We here in 'Merika have no reason to be all high and mighty when it comes to cuisine. Even though we have so many great food resources here, many people make the lazy choice of McMediocre burgers and fries or some similiar pig vomit.
Whelks and cockles are usually doused in vinegar. Those are very traditional British snacks.
Not to derail the thread but a question for our British dopers - Is it still common practice to cook your meat to well - done in Britian? Living in Canada most British born, most European born people I’ve met in fact, seem to like there meat cooked well done.
I’d re-emphasize this list with a rare exception (um, three bean salad?) along with barbecue. Barbecue alone exempts America from being topping any list of countries with bad food.
Somebody mentioned shaved ice awhile back. Have the Brits made any progress towards a proper amount of ice in iced drinks? Or does the Great Ice Shortage continue? I mean, I like lukewarm iced tea as much as the next person, but really…
A question to which the British and Americans stand together and answer all in one voice: what is this “salad” you speak of?
When most people around the world order a drink they want the drink, not half a drink and half a cup of water.
Not anywhere I’ve been recently.